


In an Ancient Elvhen World

by Mayaiai



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Feynite - Fandom
Genre: Ancient Elvhen, Dragon Age - Freeform, Fanfiction of a Fanfiction, Feynites - Freeform, Lots of OCs - Freeform, from feynites works, you should read the stuff from feynite before reading this because it probably won't make sense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-16
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2018-07-15 09:26:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7216867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mayaiai/pseuds/Mayaiai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reese realises she’s screwed, exactly twelve minutes after the world dies. Not her world, but a world. A world that is important. Like all worlds.</p>
<p>But it’s not when she dies that she realises she’s screwed, because she’s expecting to end up back in her own world with an aching body, maybe a few broken bones, and several questions from her family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. All Aboard the World Ending Train to Murder Town!

**Author's Note:**

> Right so, this is a fanfic of an au or whatever based off of Feynite's baby AU and whatnot. Highly recommend you reading that before this. 
> 
> Reese is an OC of mine, of whom I'm writing an original not Fanfic novel about, though she has been in fanfics before. Hope you enjoy :)

Reese realises she’s screwed, exactly twelve minutes after the world dies. Not her world, but a world. A world that is important. Like all worlds.

But it’s not when she dies that she realises she’s screwed, because she’s expecting to end up back in her own world with an aching body, maybe a few broken bones, and several questions from her family.

When that doesn’t happen, and she ends up in some strange place that is most definitely NOT home (unless Mum, Dad and Ayden all suddenly went Goth and moved outside and destroyed the garden which was something she couldn’t see them doing) and definitely too big.

But even then, she’s more confused than realising exactly how screwed she really is.

And when several people look over her, with confusion on their face - and surrounding their heads??? - and are simply too big, she grows more and more confused.

And then when one of them picks her up, making her squirm because for christs sake you do not just pick a person up like that it’s not nice it’s rude and put me down! does she realise that they’re not big.

She’s tiny.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Except of course, her words came out as gargles and baby talk.

‘I’m a baby.’ Reese thought flatly, as if she was simply commenting on a butterfly fluttering past. ‘How the hell did Solas -’

At eight minutes she’s put in the arms of someone else, with tattoos on their face that the Dalish wore, and they talk to her in Elvhen. She’s not fluent - no one was, except for Solas, but she knew a bit from the games and looking at the DA Wiki on Elvhen.

At eleven minutes she’s being examined by a beautiful woman who looked too much like Flemeth for her to be comfortable about, and a sullen looking man who has a glint of… something, in his eyes that would make the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

Did babies have hairs on the back of their neck? Surely they did. Wow, she really didn’t spend much time around babies.

At twelve minutes she see’s a person, elf, get murdered for no reason. Just over the shoulder of the Flemeth-vibe woman, and through an archway that’s partially concealed, she saw a guy on a platform get murdered.

She wasn’t a stranger to death. She’s a Visitor. She sees death in nearly all the worlds she visits. But that - that was just wrong.

Suddenly the Flemeth-woman looks over her shoulder and frowns and says something to the man by her side. He just shrugs and offers some comment that did not appease Flemeth-woman, but she raised a hand and the door shut, so Reese had to drag her eyes away from the dead body.

_Yes_ , that was the moment she realised she was screwed. When someone was murdered and the only reaction was to shut the door so the baby didn’t see it.

_Alright._ Reese decided. _I don’t like it here. I’m going home now. Bye-bye weird Flemeth looking lady, bye-bye strange dude. It’s nothing personal._

And then she disappeared in the lap of the tattoo’d elf holding her.

Reese blinked, still looking up at the Flemeth-woman.

_I said_ , then she disappeared in the lap of the tattoo’d elf holding her.

And it still didn’t happen.

_Crap_! Reese thought as the Flemeth-woman picked her up and started to hush her. _I’d only just gotten control of that Visitor thing, do I have to relearn it? That’s going to take ages! I don’t wanna live in murder-town as a baby until then!_

“Falon’din,” the Flemeth-woman said, and a bunch of other elvhen words followed.

Reese blinked.

Oh.

If that was Falon’din, then the Flemeth-Woman was Mythal, and she was back in time in Dragon Age Elf Land. She was in Ancient Elvhen.

Which was actually kind of cool.

If she wasn’t a baby and in murder town…

Eventually, she was given to an elf with tattoo’s on their face that she realised now were Falon’Din’s Vallasin, and was put in crib where the male elf spoke to her. She picked up pieces of what he was saying, but mainly ‘child’ ‘papa’ and  Atisumis, multiple times.

It took her a bit to realise that she was being named.

Atisumis. She had her very own elf name now. Neat.

‘I’ll learn your name eventually.’ she promised.


	2. 0/10 Would Not Recommend Murder-Town.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Falon’Din was a dick.
> 
> Of all the places she could have ended up, in Falon’Din’s land was probably the worst place, Reese figured. Well, there might be someone worse than Mr. Murder-is-fun, but Reese hadn’t heard of them and even if she hadn’t Visited here, basic rule of unplanned Visits.
> 
> Bad things almost always happen.
> 
> And Falon’Din was most certainly classified as a bad thing.

Falon’Din was a dick.

Of all the places she could have ended up, in Falon’Din’s land was probably the worst place, Reese figured. Well, there might be someone worse than Mr. Murder-is-fun, but Reese hadn’t heard of them and even if she hadn’t Visited here, basic rule of unplanned Visits.

Bad things almost always happen.

And Falon’Din was most certainly classified as a bad thing.

(She really didn’t want to think about what would have happened if Mythal hadn’t been there when she was found. Bad Things, probably.)

Her adopted Papae’s name was Ithelanas, or that was an insult that everyone kept calling him. It was a little bit annoying, not really understanding fluently what everyone was saying, and she there was no Duolingo for Ancient Elvhen, sadly.

From what Reese had put together, he was a high ranking follower of Falon’Din who had wanted a child for a while. She wondered what he had to have done to get her, but ultimately, if this guy was supposed to be looking after her while she was a baby – again – then she probably didn’t want to know.

But she only had to endure Murder-Town until her Visiting abilities kicked in again. Hopefully that wouldn’t take too long. When had she Visited for the first time? Six? But that visit only lasted for a pretty short time.

Maybe, just maybe, she would be able to fully control it when it came back. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to relearn it all.

And boy, she’d have a lot of questions to answer when she got home as a six year old. But better home as a six year old, than in murder town as a six year old.

But she wasn’t even six yet.

Patience wasn’t really one of her strong suits.

Reese didn’t enjoy being a baby, she discovered. Or rather, rediscovered. She’d heard her parents tell her that she didn’t seem to enjoy being a baby the first time around, but that was probably less being reborn and more to do with the fact that she was just a grumpy baby.

Something that Ithelanas was getting firsthand experience with.

He looked tired, she noted, as he entered her nursery, and she could catch glimpses of frustration coming off of his emotion cloud. She looked at him and blinked.

“Oh, Atisumis,” he sighed. He continued to speak, but Reese could only pick up fragments of it, but she pieced together something akin to ‘child not having to witness harshness life.’

Or maybe he was talking about pudding. It was hard to tell.

He kissed her on the forehead and then he went into his bedroom, but the light was on for as long as it took for Reese to fall asleep.

 

* * *

 

Being a toddler wasn’t that much better than a baby. She could actually understand what people were saying now with ease, but that didn’t magically come to her. And she could get around on her own unlike a baby, not that she could get far, but still.

If she suddenly needed to make a run for it, at least she could actually RUN.

Or… wobble…

She had learned more about Ithelanas too. He was in charge of exports into Falon’Din’s lands, which Reese actually didn’t know much about. He was a single parent, but a few of his friends helped him out with her.

Reese didn’t like his friends.

One was a woman named Nanlen.

Nanlen was arrogant, conceited and condescending. Everything in a person that Reese disliked.

And the other was Rasyluvunis  and he was just as bad as Nanlen, if not worse.

Both were high ranking followers, and Reese could not figure out for the life of her why Ithelanas actually spent time with them. She sure didn't enjoy spending time with them.

“Give her time,” Ithelanas said one day to Nanlen and Rasyluvunis. “She'll learn to like you.”

Fat chance Elf Dad.

 

* * *

 

"Ati! My girl,  guess what!"  Elfpapae exclaimed one day as he entered the house that Reese had been calling home for the past four years.

"What?" Reese asked,  looking up from the children toys, blinking. These toys were boring.

"Papa has got some free time,  so you and I are going to Arlathan for a few weeks!"

Reese widened her eyes. Arlathan. She'd never been out of Falon'Dins lands before, and from what she's heard,  Arlathan sounded pretty good.

Maybe pretty good wasn't the right words.

Better than Murder-Town, anyway.

But the Fallowmire could be classed as better than Murder-Town. The freaking Blackmarsh is better than Murder-Town.

Was better? Will be better?

"That’s good!" Reese replied, smiling. "When?"

"Next week. A bit sudden, I know, but we will have plenty of time to prepare."

Reese nodded her head, and glanced down at the toys she's been playing with. Maybe she could find some action figures in Arlathan. At least she could actually make up intricate stories with them, or replay a few episodes of Supernatural. ..


	3. As It Turns Out, Snooping May Not Be The Best Idea.

Arlathan was prettier than Murder-Town, that was pretty clear.  But a stick in a mud with a flower crown would be prettier than Murder-Town.

And more spirits seemed to be around. Which was fair enough. They'd be less likely to be plucked out of the air for some unnecessary death for some unnecessary ritual than in Murder-Town.

Less likely, but not _entirely_ unlikely to happen.

Falon'Dins area in Arlathan was better than his land, but really, not by much at all. Man, that dude needs a stylist.

The city however, where all servants of all the notgods hung out, was Reese favourite. So many elves, so much colour, and people chatting and talking and the different vallasin, and how it seemed so...

Not lonely.

And with so many people, it was easy to blend in. Yes it was loud, and rowdy and she was four years old so people tended to look at her, but it was still easier for her and Ithelanas to blend in than back at Falon’Din’s lands.

They went to a dining hall, near the middle of the day, but as soon as they entered, Ithelanas tensed, and she felt him tighten his grip on her hand. She blinked, and looked in the direction he was looking, and she couldn't really work out what the matter was.

Her eyes landed on an elf. She looked different to the other elves, and not just because her face was bare, but the entire energy that surrounded her was... different, but at the same time, familiar.

"My Lady." Ithelanas greeted, and bowed his head.

Reese blinked. Was this one of the other notgods? That would explain the lack of vallasin.

"Who're you?" she asked.

The elf lady seemed slightly surprised by the question, and slightly... concerned?

"My name is Lavellan, and what's yours?"

Lavellan? That was the name of the Dalish Inquisitor. Maybe the Lavellan clan were descended from this elf.

"Atisumis." Reese answered. "But you can call me Ati."

Because Elfpapae couldn't pick an easier name...

"It is lovely to meet you, Ati. Here, take this. As a present." She held her hand out, and on it was a wooden carved bird, with decoration along the wings. Closer inspection when Reese picked it up, showed that the decoration was words. English words.

_Do you speak the trade tongue?_

She looked up at Lavellan and nodded her head. "Thank you very much."

Lavellan smiled and then looked at her Elfdad. "Take care, Ithelanas." She offered, her body slightly tensed, before turning and leaving.

As soon as she was out of sight, Ithelanas took the carved bird from her hands. "I am sorry, little girl, but you can't keep it."

Reese blinked. " Why not?"

He hesitated.

"If Lord Falon'Din found out that Lord Dirthamen's daughter gave you a gift, he wouldn't be happy. And we don't like it when he's not happy."

Dirthadude had a daughter? Wow - that wasn't on the Wiki.

"OK." She nodded her head, but held on to the carved bird for a moment longer,  almost as if memorising it and all the English writing on the side.

She held it out for him to take, which he did and he tucked it away. Reese supposed it didn't matter much. She'd found the purpose of the gift. Lavellan wanted to know if she spoke the trade tongue, and no one around so here knew that except for her, or anyone else from the future.

Or if Lavellan was a Visitor, but she doubted that for many reasons.

That left her pondering for the rest of the day. If Lavellan was from the future, what did that mean? The Inquisitor had been Cadash, not Lavellan. Did Solas’s ‘time travel’ thingy ma-jig just pick up random people all across Thedas and drop them back here?

That would be one way of saving people’s lives, but a very…. odd one.

* * *

 

“Alright, Ati, it’s time for bed.” Ithelanas said, once they got back to Ithelanas’s apartment in the city. “You’ve had a busy day, and you’re tired. Don’t argue.”

Reese pouted.

Another disadvantage to being a baby. Unable to go to bed whenever she wanted.

Except during the day.

After she was in her pajama’s and in her small bed, and had a small floating nightlight near her bed, Ithelanas left her room and went into the adjoining bedroom.

Reese fell asleep before the light went off in there.

 

 

She woke up. The small nightlight illuminated her room enough to realise that it was not yet morning and still dark outside.

“Great. Now I’m wide awake. See, this is why I like going to bed late.” Reese sighed, and shook her head as she sat up.

She glanced over at Ithelanas’s room. The light was off, and Reese was rather glad. The man had been in something of a walking daze for the past few days so it was good he could get some sleep. She wasn’t going to go wake him up, just because she was awake and bored.

Reese tiled her head, still looking towards the door.

He must be very tired, and in a very deep sleep…

She slipped off the bed and reached up and grabbed the small nightlight, covered most of the glowing orb with her hands so only a small beam of light shone out, and quietly crept over towards the doorway.

She had made peace with the fact that she couldn’t keep the carved bird that Lavellan had given her, but for some reason, she had the urge to see it again. Maybe because it was the only link she had to something that wasn’t Ancient Murder-Town.

She looked around the barely illuminated room and frowned. If she was a wooden bird that wasn’t allowed to be in Falon’Din’s lands, where would she be?

Probably thrown away before it even got to the apartment.

But she hadn’t seen him do it, and besides, it was a gift from an Evanuris’s daughter. Even she knew you just didn’t throw that away. He had to have it in here somewhere.

She walked over to his desk, and grabbed a box to boost herself onto the seat. She looked on the desk, but there was nothing on there.

What is it with people and tidy desks? Reese thought to herself with a shake of her head.

She looked at the draw, and tried to open it.

It was locked.

Reese frowned. It could quite possibly be in there. What could she use to pick the lock?

She carefully climbed down the chair, back onto the ground and went back to her room. She glanced at herself in the mirror over her tiny dresser as she took some hairpins, and then went back into Ithelanas’s desk.

Her motor skills were not quite the best to be trying to pick a lock with, not yet anyway, but after a bit of time – and constantly checking that Ithelanas was still sleeping – she head a quiet click of it unlocking.

She grabbed the hairpins and shoved them all into a small pocket on her pajamas, and slowly opened the draw.

And there it was.

Her hand brushed against the carved bird, and the English letters that decorated the wings, but before she picked it up, something else attracted her attention.

Papers.

She was still learning to read Elvhen, so she couldn’t make out everything that was on them, but she could tell they were lists. She picked up one and shone the light from her nightlight onto it. There was dates, and numbers, and possibly names.

Several pages of them.

She saw several names of the Evanuris there too, mostly Falon’Dins but the others were there.

_Camp 21 – 102 – Andruil to Falon’Din._   
_Camp 28 – 80 – Falon’Din to Dirthamen._   
_Camp 15 – 60 – Mythal to Falon’Din._

Reese blinked, and glanced at Ithelanas, still peacefully asleep, when she realised what the papers were, it hitting her like a bag of bricks.

She put the papers back, exactly how she found them, and then shut the draw not even bothering with the wood carved bird, and went back to her room, making sure to dump the hairpins back where she got them from.

She felt sick.

She knew that Ithelanas was in charge of Imports and Exports for Falon’Din.

She just didn’t realise what those Imports and Exports _were_.

Slaves.


	4. Basically Just Cameo's

The next morning, if Ithelanas discovered his draw unlocked, he didn’t say anything about it. Hhe looked at her with a smile on his face. “Do you want to see the Garden’s today, Ati?”

Reese glanced at him for a moment before looking away.

“Yeah, ok.” She answered softly.

She could feel his emotions shift slightly, leaning towards something of concern. “Atisumis? Is everything alright?”

She looked at him, for longer than a second this time. He was frowning, and the concern was on his face.

_Last night I found out that you ‘import and export’ slaves, but hey, no biggie. You just do it for your tyrannical not a god leader.I swear, if I ever get my hands on him – four year old ones or not – I’m gonna…. probably run away. Then come back with weapons of mass destruction._

“Nothing. Had bad dream, that’s all.” Reese said instead.

“You should’ve come into me, little one.” Ithelanas said softly, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Reese was quiet for a moment, before she tilted her head. “So… gardens? Are they pretty?”

Ithelanas smiled. “They are. Mythal’s people tend to them.”

Reese smiled, and jumped to her feet. “Let’s go then!”

 

* * *

 

The gardens _were_ pretty. Much prettier than anything she’s ever seen in Ancient Elvhen before. She stared at the flower gardens with more colours than she ever thought possible to have in one spot – yet it was still very pleasing to the eye and not at all over the top?

She looked up at Ithelanas. “Can we bring this back with us?”

He smiled.

“Ithelanas?”

Reese and her Elfpapae turned to see a different elf standing there, looking at Ithelanas with an expression of suspicion.

“Thenvunin,” Ithelanas tilted his head slightly in greeting.

“What are you doing here?” The elf that should, by all rights, not be in Dragon Age but Lord of the Rings instead, said.

“Having a day out with my daughter.” Ithelanas raised an eyebrow at him.

That was when the other elf with Mythal’s markings looked down at Reese. With the hand that wasn’t held in Ithelanas’s she gave him a small wave.

“Hello!” Reese said, smiling. “You’re pretty. You look like Than-dran-duil.”

Thenvunin blinked.

Reese tilted her head. “He’s an elf warrior. He’s got a son too, who is also very pretty.” She continued, even though he hadn’t asked who she was talking about.

Ithelanas chuckled. “She comes up with stories. Thandranduil is a part of those stories.”

“I’m Atisumis! You know Papae?”

Thenvunin nodded his head, and smiled at her softly. “Yes, we know each other.”

Ithelanas looked down at her. “Let’s move on to the next garden, little one. It might even be more beautiful than this one.”

Reese glanced at the flowers, then at Thenvunin. Yeah, _maybe_. She thought. But unlikely.

* * *

 

"I couldn't find you last night."

Reese turned around at the voice speaking in English, and saw Lavellan standing there.

"I woke up early." Reese offered as her excuse. The apparent 4 year old tilted her head at Lavellan, and studied her face.  From her eyes, to her nose and down to her lips and chin.

Yeah, she's never seen this woman before.

"Who are you?" Reese asked. "You're from the future, but who were you?"

Lavellan blinked.

"I'm... I was the Inquisitor. I take it you never saw me?"

Ah.

Reese shook her head. "Me and the Quizzy were good pals, great even! Barely any threats of impalement. That's always a good foundation for friendship. Thing is, that Quizzy was a dwarf named Cadash."

Lavellan blinked in surprise.

"So, lotsa things coulda happened. One of us crossed over from a different world. Probably me because I'm a baby, and you're not.” Reese shrugged slightly.

"You seem sure about that. Who were you?"

"M'name's Reese Ayren and, man, it is great to say that.” Reese smiled at her. “Reese Ayren. Reese. Ayren. Reese Ayren. I'm Reese Ayren. Not _Atisumis_. Though, I suppose I could've gotten a worse name.”

Lavellan was staring at her.

Reese shrugged. "I do that, from time to time. Just blabber on about things, and some things that don't make sense to anyone. People just learn to ignore it, normally."

"Right..."

Reese smiled slightly. It was also a good way to get off topic.

"Elfpapae said you're Dirthamens daughter? And that if Falon'Din found out about the bird you gave me, he wouldn't be happy."

Lavellan sighed. She looked around their surroundings in the Dreaming - which was somewhere Reese had never been before the four years here. Even in Thedas she never went to the Fade when she dreamt.

She counted her lucky stars for that. Less demons, yay.

"My Uncle wants me dead. He hates me because Dirthamen has spent less of his attention on him."

Reese frowned. "He's actively trying to kill you?"

"Discreetly."

Reese rolled her eyes. “Well, I have met a few dysfunctional families over my travels. I can't say for sure if your family is more or less dysfunctional that the family with the son who thought his father was dead, and was facing his father's murderer who turned out was his father and got his hand chopped off by his dad, and kissed his sister who he didn’t then know was his sister and ended up fighting his father again,  except when the fathers evil master told the son to kill the father,  he didn't so the evil master tortured the son,  and then the father threw the evil master down a deep hole, saving the son but ultimately dying in the end but as a redeemed man."

Lavellan stared at her some more.

"Falon'Din is just trying to kill me." She said after a moment. "It's not...  quite as complex as that."

Reese shrugged. “Probably a good - _AHK!_ ”

She cut herself off, her hand flying to her chest. Lavellan’s eyes widened as she moved closer to her. “What’s wrong?”

Reese shut her eyes, and tried breathing as slowly as she could, but unfortunately, it didn’t quite work. She clenched one of her tiny fists and hit it hard on her chest.

In, out, in out.

The sharp, shooting pain stopped.

Reese slowly opened her eyes, and discovered that she was on the floor, and the surroundings in the Dreaming had changed to a house.

“What the – _!!_ ”

“It’s a child!”

“Where did she come from?”

She blinked, and looked up. Three figures were surrounding her, and two she could recognise. Thenvunin was there, and Lavellan. Next to them was another elf, wearing spikey red armour and wore Andruil’s face markings.

“Uh. Hi?” Reese blinked again, hand rubbing on her chest.

Then the pain started again, a cry of pain escaping from her and forced her to shut her eyes again. When the pain died down again, and she opened her eyes she was staring at a Lavellan with June’s Vallasin, and June himself was standing next to her, both with wide eyes.

June looked at Lavellan, then back to her.

“Where’d the baby come from?!”

“I don’t know.” Lavellan said, and walked over to her.

She reached out to touch her shoulder, but Reese shuffled backwards away from her.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” Lavellan whispered in English.

“I know.” Reese whispered back. “I don’t want to hurt yo-ahH!”

When Reese opened her eyes again, she was staring at Thenvunin again, except this time he wore Andruil’s Vallasin, and there was a young Lavellan – but older than her body – with him. He didn’t even get to speak before the pain flared up again and she was somewhere else.

“Sweet mother of fricking everything!” Reese exclaimed, in English, attracting the attention of a woman – a _human_ woman – with dark hair and Elgarnan’s Vallasin.

“What –” the woman started but Reese had vanished again before she could finish.

“ _Atisumis_!”

The paniced voice was Ithelanas.

She was back in her bed.

He reached out to put his hand on her shoulder, but she pushed herself away from him. “Don’t!”

Ithelanas hesitated, looking at her with wide eyes. After a second, he sat down on the bed next to her. “Bad dream?”

Reese swallowed, not making her now queasy stomach feel any better, and she could feel the fear and pain from her own emotion cloud. She rubbed at her chest hard, even though she couldn’t feel the pain anymore. Oh _man,_ that had hurt. Unexpected Visits never hurt that much before.

“I heard you screaming. I was so worried.” Ithelanas spoke again.

Reese looked at him. “I… I was still here?”

He looked slightly surprised by the question, but he nodded his head. “Of course, little one, you never left. Is… is that what your dream was about?”

Reese didn’t answer, and instead emptied her stomach on the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The human with Elgarnan's vallasin is Olwyn and belongs to Justanartsysideblog on tumblr (sorry I can't remember your ao3 name off the top of my head right now!)


	5. Yikes And Double Yikes

Reese tilted her head at the spirit.

The spirit mimicked her.

“Are you sure she’s alright?” She could hear Ithelanas speaking in the background, in hushed, but not quite hushed enough, tones. “I couldn’t wake her up – and she threw up!”

The Healer replied, but their voice was quieter so she couldn’t hear what they said.

“She was screaming in _pain._ ”

“We can’t find anything wrong.”

Reese sighed.

“He loves you,” the Spirit said. “But you are conflicted?”

Reese frowned and looked away. “I care about him. I do. It’s just… I don’t _know_ him. He’s taken care of me for four years, but I just don’t know him. And I –”

_I already have a family that I love. Already have a father, a mother, a brother. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. I already have a family. And they are all still alive, back in my world._

_And I miss them._

The Spirit didn’t seem to need any more words from her, it just seemed to _get_ what she couldn’t say. Which really, was a good thing since she couldn’t for the life of her figure out what she was trying to say anyway.

Ithelanas walked up to her, and held his hand out to her. She could feel the displeasure oozing off of him. “Let’s go, Ati.”

Slowly she put her hand in his, and he led her out of the healers room.

After they walked in silence for a short while, Reese looked up at him. “I’m sorry for scaring you.”

He shook his head at her. “It’s not your fault.”

Reese shrugged and looked away.

Well, it kinda was.

She had Visited while in the Dreaming. She wondered if that was why it had hurt so much. Because she was still here, but not? And what were those other Worlds anyway? They all seemed to be this one, but with only slight differences. That’s never happened before.

Thinking about it was not giving her any answers, just a headache.

She would need to try that again, but maybe not in the Dreaming.

She glanced down at her toddler self.

And _maybe_ when her body was older.

 

* * *

 

That night, Lavellan visited her again in her dreams.

“Are you alright? You went to the healers today?”

Reese nodded her head. “I’m fine.”

Lavellan frowned, and took a step closer to Reese.

Reese took a step backwards.

“Look – it’s nothing personal but… maybe don’t come close to me? I – I don't know what caused it and - ” she didn't finish, but Lavellan seemed to understand.

_Seemed_ to.

"I won't be able to visit you when you go back to Falon'Dins lands." Lavellan told her after a moment. "And I have to go now."

Reese nodded as she watched Lavellan turn as if to walk way, not that she really needed to, then she vanished as Reese assumed she woke up.

The four year old looked around her now empty dreamscape. "Right," she said after a moment of silence. "Time to recreate the next Star Wars movie with my dreams."

 

* * *

 

Time passed slowly.

Reese slowly grew up. From four, to five, to six -  well I'm sure you know how to count. Point is, she was growing up. And slower than she remembered it being the first time around.

The first time she grew up, she had been relatively sheltered. This time around, it was more so. Or at least, as much as she could be sheltered in Falon’Din’s lands. Ithelanas tried to hide most of the gruesome parts – which really, was nearly everything – from her and it probably would have worked was she not really a child, or as observant as she was.

She hadn’t had any more Unexpected Visits, something she was rather grateful for. Even in the Waking World.

It was enough to know that she was still a Visitor in this reborn body, but something told her that if she suddenly vanished for who knows how long, Ithelanas would get into trouble.

Reese could not say that Falon’Din cared one iota about her wellbeing, or any childs wellbeing, but he would jump at the change to ‘discipline’ someone. With death.

Which, really, if you thought about it, wasn’t very disciplinary.

Since the person would be dead and wouldn’t learn anything.

But _anyway_.

Over the years, Reese learned and relearned more skills. Once she had relatively full mastery over her motor skills she started practising her martial art skills again. She started at the beginning, and then as she got older she moved onto more advance stuff that she knew, and eventually to some of the fighting skills that she learnt in other Worlds.

It was hard to make sure that no one was watching her when she did it though, so it was a slow progress.

She also started to learn magic. It was different to any type of skill she had ever learned before, but she tried to use the same methods she had used for the Force in a different world she had visited. Surprisingly, some methods of that worked, while others failed horribly.

When Reese turns nineteen, she gets the feeling that something is wrong.

And when Nanlen bursts through, with a wild and terrified expression on her face, Ithelanas and Reese stare at her as she speaks about an attempted kill on Dirthamen's daughter, and a war against the rest of the Evanuras, her bad feeling was proved right.

 

* * *

 

“Atisumis, you must stay here.”

Reese shook her head. “No – either I come with you or you stay here!”

Ithelanas sighed, and ran a hand over his face. He has bags under his eyes and Reese knows he hasn't slept in weeks.

“I have to go. You have to stay here.”

Reese resisted the urge to stop her foot, and instead she grounded her teeth. “Do you know how many people our _Mighty Lord_ has sacrificed already? How many High Ranking followers? You are not safe!”

Ithelanas stared at her. “You're not supposed to know about that.”

Reese snorted. “I'm nineteen, not _blind_.” She waved an arm around. “Please!”

“If I stay then Falon'Din might use it as an excuse to kill me.” Ithelanas placed both hands on her shoulders.

“It's not like he needs an excuse.” Reese muttered.

“Shhh, I'm going, and I will be fine. You'll see.”

Reese didn't speak as Ithelanas planted a kiss on her forehead.

She wished she could say that he was right. She wished she could even reason that he wouldn't be hurt because she wasn't twenty-five yet, and as such a young child needed her Elfpapae. But she knew that wouldn't be a reasonable reason for Falon'Din to not use him in one of his sacrifices for power.

“Please, be careful.” Reese said as he walked out of the door to their apartment and shut it.

She had a long day of waiting around and doing nothing, she thought. With a sigh, she turned around and started tiding the apartment. Unfortunately it wasn't much of a distraction as it was still tidy from when she tidied it as a distraction yesterday, and the day before, and the day before. She was pretty sure that Ithelanas's sword display had _never_ been cleaner.

A song popped into her head, making her pause. She hadn't heard it in _years_ , even before she turned up here.

She started humming the tune, waiting until the lyrics would come into her mind.

“Annie you OK, you OK, you OK Annie,” she started to mutter under her breath.

Unfortunately, only those words would come to the song, so she sang those over and over again to the tune.

After some time, she sat down at the table, and banged her head on the surface. Ugh. How sooner until Ithelanas got back? Not soon enough.

She jolted up, a sound of... something shattering alerting her. She couldn't see anything broken, but that was when she realised that nothing had been broken – nothing physical.

“Wards,” she breathed, not feeling the slight tickle in the air of the protective magic.

Quickly she rushed to the sword display, and grabbed one out and held it in both hands.

She hadn't yet had a chance to relearn how to use a sword but, hey, hopefully she could remember.

“You will hurt yourself with that.”

Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.

She blinked a lot as Falon'Din turned around the corner.

Oh shit.  



	6. A Bad House Guest (And Look! Another Cameo!)

“Uhhh.....” she dragged the word out as she looked at Falon'Din in her apartment. “Well... the plan was to use it against intruders. But... uhh.... are you looking for Papae?”

She probably should have stuck 'my lord' on there, but she really could not bring herself to say those words. Even if she knew that saying them probably would give her a better chance of survival. Damned pride.

Falon'Din looked at her, the way she figured people looked at a gnat, or something tiny, annoying and pretty much had no use.

“No.” Falon'Din waved a hand and the sword vanished from her hand.

She didn't look down at her now empty hands, and just continued to look at Falon'Din.

“Are you ready to serve your lord?”

Reese had a feeling it wasn't really a question.

“Oh, yeah, definitely.” She gave a thumbs up. “In like, six years? When I'm twenty-five? And get the pretty face markings?”

_STOP TALKING REESE._

_Relax, me, it's not like I haven't mouthed off to worse. Have I?_

“You get to serve early.” He walked closer.

Reese walked backwards.

“Uh... ok. That sounds like... fun? What do you want me to do? Be an assassin? Because I'm _only_ nineteen so people would underestimate me – but then again – _what_ end of the knife to I stab with?”

Falon'Din was done with the conversation, she could tell. A vital clue was when he stormed up to her, in almost some kind of smooth movement and placed his hand around her throat.

That was generally a good sign.

“Insolent _brat_ , the only reason you still breathe is for your death to come later. The sacrifice of a child will give me _great_ power.”

Reese grasped at the hand around his throat, but then she hit down hard on his arm, where his elbow would be. She had no idea if she actually hurt him, or if he was wearing armour under his cloak, or what, but it was either that or just the simple surprise that made him let go.

She quickly turned and ran, shutting the door of her bedroom behind her.

“Where are those weapons of Mass Destruction when you need them!” Reese muttered, gently rubbing her neck.

The door flew off it's hinges.

“You _dare_ touch your Lord!”

The words reverberated off the walls, making it louder than what it should have been.

Reese stared at Falon'Din, and then genty rubbed her chest. Had he managed to hit her on there? It was starting to hurt.

OH.

Despite the pain and the pressure building up in her chest, Reese grinned and laughed.

“You're not my Lord,” she said simply.

And just as Falon'Din flung some kind of spell at her, she vanished.

 

* * *

 

  
  


“SWEET MOTHER OF _CHEESE_ – why does that hurt so _goddamn_ much?” Reese moaned, as she harshly hit at her chest, as if the threat of more pain could make the currently existing pain stop.

That was when she became aware that she was not alone, if the startled emotion cloud was anything to go by.

She looked up, hand still rubbing at the ache in her chest, and saw that she was in a room with another occupant. An elf with Elgar-nan's Vallasin, and a huge battle axe. She just stared at her, and Reese stared back.

“Uh. Hi?” Reese blinked.

“Where did you come from?” The... Peacekeeper? asked.

“Ah – that's a long story.” Reese blinked again, and the pain in her chest finally stopped, but now she could feel pain on her neck.

The woman frowned, deeply, her eyes flickering to Reese's neck where she was sure bruises were coming up.

“How old are you?” The woman asked after a second of looking at her face.

“Nineteen.”

Alarm appeared on the elfs face. “Where are your carers?! What happened to your throat?! Who did that – I'll bring them to face justice!”

Reese blinked, and very slowly, climbed to her feet, and brushed off the dress. “Well, that's the thing. Uh – I'm Atisumis.”

“Desire.” the elf offered.

Reese ran a hand over the bruises again. Her throat was sore, probably because she had nearly been stranged – even if Falon'Din hadn't been planning on killing her there.

“Pleasure, Desire. You're much better company than who I was just with. Odd question – but, uh – are there currently any wars or battles of note being waged right now?”

Desire frowned, and tilted her head. “Not of _note,”_ she answered. “That is an odd question. But come here, we should get you to the healers to look at that throat.”

Reese shook her head. “No – I gotta go back.,” her eyes widened. “ _Shit –_ Ithelanas! He's going to go after Ithelanas!”

“Ithelanas?” Desire repeated, her frown deepening.

Reese could feel panic in her emotion cloud, but she couldn't pull it away or hide it.

“He's one of Falon'Din's.”

Reese glanced at Desire and ran a hand through her hair. “Ugh – look, this is going to make like, zero sense. But I'm from another world – universe – _whatever –_ and there Ithelanas is my carer – and Falon'Din just tried to get me sacrificed and I hit him, and escaped so he's going to go after Ithelanas because he's a sadistic _dick_ and I need to go back!”

Why she was telling this Desire this, she had no idea. It's not like Desire could put her on a train back to the world she had come from. Only she could do that. Uh. Not with a train though...

“Falon'Din was going to sacrifice you.” Desire repeated, and she didn't sound very surprised by it. “You're a child, he can't get away with that.”

“ _That's_ what you take from that?” Reese ran a hand over her face. “It's not like he cares what the others think at the moment, since they're all fighting against him!”

_Breathe, Reese. In, out. In, out._

She followed her own suggestion, and shut her eyes. Her throat was killing her. Did anyone have a Lozenge?

“I just need to focus. I haven't Visited in years. For some reason, it hurts. Like, a lot. It's not supposed to do that.”

She kept her eyes shut.

_In, out. In, out. Listen to your surroundings. Listen to the quiet, listen to the light sparkle of magic, the breathing of Desire. In, out. In, out._

_And think of Ithelanas. Think of your Elfpapae. Listen to his voice, listen to his breathing._

“Ahck!”

“Atisumis!”

Reese opened her eyes. That... hurt marginally less, thanks that it actually planned, but, wow, that still hurt.

Ithelanas was staring at her, along with Nanlen and Rasyluvunis. He then looked next to her, even more confusion filling the air.

“You have a Peacekeeper?”

Reese glanced beside her, and sure enough, the squishy peacekeeper was there. Reese just blinked before turning her head back to look at her Elfpapae. “I'll deal with that later. Papae, we need to leave – like – now. Falon'Din is coming here.”

“What?” Ithelanas blinked.

“Please, trust me!” Reese half pleaded. “He came to the apartment – he wanted to use me for some sacrificial shit to get more power, because he's a Falon'Dick, and I got away so he's going to go after you now!”

The three just stared at her.

“What – what did you just call him?” Nanlen said.

Reese spread her hands out. “ _That's what you take from that?!?!”_

Nanlen looked at Ithelanas. "Your daughter called our Lord -"

"Yes, Nanlen, I do have ears. In fact, I also heard her mention that we are going to die soon, and would prefer that not to happen."

"If that is our Lords choice." Rasyluvunis said.

Reese slowly let out a breath. "Fine. You can stay and end up on the sacrificial chopping Block, but Papae and I are leaving. Nanlen? We're burning living light here."

To her credit, Nanlen only hesitated for a moment. "Where are we going?"

"Atisumis," Desire spoke up. "Take your Papae and his friend and leave. I will stay and buy you some time."

"Wh-what?"

Desire smiled, but it wasn't a happy smile. It was twisted with despair, and anger and the hope for revenge. "I have something to settle with Falon'Din."

Reese felt like burying her face in her hands and screaming, but instead she moved forwards, grabbed Ithelanas and Nanlen and moved them towards Desire. She looked at Rasyluvunis, then swore under her breath, and grabbed him too.

She ignored his ‘complaints’ as she pushed him to where the others were all standing.

“I would find this amusing, were _my_ _own_ servants not rallying against **me**.”

Everyone froze.

“M-my Lord – I tried to stop them.” Rasyluvunis spoke up, walking up to, and kneeling in front of him. Falon’Din barely looked at him for a second, before slicing his throat.

Reese stared as Rasyluvunis's body fell to the ground.

“No you wouldn’t.” Reese rsaid, looking back to Falon'Din. “You don’t have a funny bone in your crazy body.”

“Atisumis!” Ithelanas hissed, grabbing her arm.

She looked at him. “What, it's not like he's gonna kill us any less if we're _nice._ ”

Desire had her battle-axe in her hands, and was glaring at the Evanuris so hard, that if looks could kill, Falon'Din would be dead, buried, and in hell, ten times over.

But unfortunately, in this case, looks couldn't kill.

“Ithelanas, get them out of here. I'll deal with him.”

“Desire - ” Reese started, and grabbed her by the shoulder.

Falon'Din slowly moved closer to them, his cloak billowing behind him, even though there was no wind or anything to do as such.

Drama king.

“Papae, grab Nanlen.” Reese said, not taking her eyes off the would be god.

_In, out. In, out._

“You will not get away again,” Falon'Din snarled, and raised his hand.

Reese felt a brief flash of pain, just before they all vanished.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Desire the Peacekeeper belongs to Feynites :3


	7. Napping is Fun

 

All she is aware of is pain.

Thousands upon thousands of tiny bubbles explode under her skin, and her chest is thrumming with extra pain, deep down past her heart it almost seems like there's something else there causing it.

Her throat is hoarse, and in brief moments of clarity between conciousness and unconsciousness, she catches glimpses of Ithelanas looking over her, the most panicked she can ever recall seeing him.

There's Desire, _leaving_.

Nanlen's hands hovering over her and the wash of something tingling over her, but the millions of explosions fought against it, and the pain doubled.

_Holyfuckcanitstopmakeitstopmakeitstopitfuckinghurtsi'mgonnadieiknowitiamgoingtodiethisisgoingtokillme. Aftereverythingthisisitsomedouchbagwithagodcomplexdidmein.Fuckingfuck._

No matter what happened, the tiny explosions persisted.

That was when she realised, vaguely, though her pain filled haze, it wasn’t going to kill her. It was going to make her wish she would die.

 

* * *

 

 

The pain stopped.

Reese couldn’t say for sure when it stopped, and for a moment she had wondered if she had died.

Eventually, she opened her eyes and that thought vanished.

There wouldn’t be a Mythal in the afterlife – not this one, anyway.

She blinked blearily, watching as the Evanuris was trying to get information from Ithelanas, Nanlen, and Desire. Her eyes focused on her Elfpapae, his skin was pale, and he was shaking slightly.

“I want to know who did this to that child.” Mythal was speaking, her voice level but Reese was rather excellent – if she did say so herself – at picking up anger in tones. And whew boy, was Mythal angry.

And it’d probably be best not to let anyone answer that question, since it seemed unlikely that Falon’Din was acting all ‘grr arg I’m gonna kill everything’ in this world.

Well… not more than normal, anyway.

She tried to sit up, and promptly fell off the bed thing she had been laying on, and face down on the ground.

“Ati!” Ithelanas exclaimed, as all eyes fell on her on the ground.

Reese held up a hand. “Sup,” she muttered.

Someone helped her up, and Reese looked and saw Lavellan, with Mythal’s Vallasin on her face. Lavellan helped her get back on the bed thing.

Mythal moved over to her. “Dear child. Who did this to you?”

Reese looked down at her hands, and saw red marks covering her skin. “I – I don’t remember. I think – I think we were attacked from behind. I don’t remember much from what followed – but I think the attacker was gone just as quick as they arrived.”

Mythal frowned.

Reese focused on her pain, making sure that covered anything that would expose her with her emotion cloud.

“Rest child. You need it.”

Reese reached out and grabbed Mythal’s arm before she could move away. Ithelanas and Nalen shifted uncomfortably.

“They did everything they could. Please don’t punish them.”

Mythal looked down at her. “Don’t worry, child. Besides, they are not mine to punish.”

Eeeeechhhhh. She really hoped that Falon’Din wasn’t just going to drop by. Either he would be wondering why there was two Ithelanas’s, or wondering why he had abandoned his post and suddenly had a daughter.

“Well, this day is fantastic,” Reese muttered laying back down.

Lavellan patted her on the shoulder.

Reese offered a smile to the former Inquisitor, before shutting her eyes to rest again.

She needed to regain her strength, so she could get Ithelanas and Nanlen out of here and somewhere safe. Hopefully lacking any Evanuris.

 

 

She woke up later.

Reese blinked, how long had she been asleep? She hoped it wasn’t too long. She needed to find her Elfpapae and Nanlen and get out of here.

The floor was surprisingly warm, even though she felt it should be cold. Who needs indoor heating when you've got magic?

At the door, she could hear breathing. A guard - no, too much breathing for one person, unless they've just ran somewhere. So at least two guards. Two seemed likely.

She couldn't go out that door then. Unless she could magically shapeshift into Mythal or someone...

After waiting a second with nothing happening, she changed course. The window. It opened out onto a balcony, and wow.

It was night, but the city below shimmered like it was reflecting the starry sky above. Crystal towers bounced the starlight, making it seem like the towers themselves held stars.

Where's a camera when you need one?

But yea - now is not the time to be starstruck by this beautiful part of an alternate murder-past. Even if it was pretty.

Reese looked over the edge of the balcony. She was pretty high up - and there was a balcony below hers a fair distance - and looking up showed there was one up there a bit too..

Climb up, or climb down?

The walls were... Difficult, to scale. Difficult did not mean impossible. Just that she was really wishing for a rope or something that was between her and sudden and unfortunate pancake death.

Happy thought, right there.

She grabbed onto the balcony, and started to hoist herself up.

Remember. No pancake.

She lifted herself over the balcony railing and dropped onto the balcony. She looked at the door that led inside - and hoped she hadn't set off any wards. That would be very not good.

The door was open, leading onto whatever room was above the one she had been in. Hopefully, there wouldn't be any guards here. Or, at least, none that attentive looking after a child.

Not that she was a child. She was nineteen - the same age she'd been when the world went bye-bye and got sent back here in the first place!

And she'd been younger than nineteen the first time around when she'd first been stabbed near fatally!

OK...

Maybe that wasn't really helping her case there?

"If I were a tyrannical would-be God queen, where would I keep the two strange elves who turned up with a nineteen year old with round ears, who by now I had probably figured out doesn't exist." Mythal would have looked into her by now, and discovered that Atisumis the child in Falon'Dins lands did not exist.

"Probably as far from the strange round eared child as I could."

Reese ran a hand through her hair. This was near pointless. How was she supposed to find Ithelanas and Nanlen? For all she knew, they might not even be here anymore! They could have been taken through am Eluvian or - or -

Nope. Not gonna think about that. No no no. Let's just swim in Denial River, into Egypt and say hi to all the crocodiles that want to gnaw your face off.

Reese blinked.

Well. That got dark...

Anyway, back to actually making sense here.

The room was thankfully, empty, and as she listened at the door for any kind of breathing, unguarded. She slipped out the door, making sure it shut quietly behind her, and walked down the hallway with her barefeet.

She paused, as she heard something and peering around a corner off into another hall, she saw an elf, and was relieved to see she recognised it to be Thenvunin. She was about to walk out there when she paused.

What if he just took her back to Mythal? He’d have too – it was his job.

Damn it. If only Lavellan was here, she’d be able to talk to her and get her to help!

Thenvunin started to walk down the hallway, and then after a second, Reese followed. He might not be able to help her, but she could follow him and he could lead her to Ithelanas or Lavellan.

She made sure to stay a fair distance away from him, and to have somewhere to duck into should the need arise.

Fortunatly, it didn’t – which was actually kinda odd because as far as she knew Thenvunin was a pretty good soldier. It seemed kinda odd he wouldn’t look behind at least once.

Huh.

Was this a trap? Or something else.

A hand grabbed her wrist.

She twisted her arm, and pulled her arm towards her as she took a step backwards, successfully breaking the grip on her arm as she looked out at the shadowed columns.

Lavellan stepped out, and looked slightly impressed. “Good reflexes,” the elf offered, her eyes glancing at Reese’s round ears for a moment. “Are you from-?”

Reese rolled her shoulders. “It’s a long story – but yes. I’m from Thedas, just a different one that you’re from and where’s Ithelanas and Nanlen – I need to get them out of here.”

“A different – wait. I can take you to them. They’re in the ‘guest hall.’” The way Lavellan said ‘guest’ made Reese think that Guest wasn’t quite the right word.

“Please do. I need to get them out of here before Mythal realises that there’s multiple worlds going on. That’s the last thing I need any of the Evanuris knowing.”

Lavellan frowned, but slowly nodded her head. “Alright, I’ll take you. But you need to explain on the way.”

“Deal.”

 

 


End file.
